Charles Barkley has made quite the career for himself as a panelist on Inside The NBA. Barkley joined the show right after he retired in 2000, and has been an important member of the show for 22 years now.
Barkley is considered essential to the show and is one of the biggest draws the show has. One of the most anticipated moments on the show is whenever Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal get into a debate.
And it appears that Shaquille O’Neal is a little sensitive when it comes to basketball strategy. Charles Barkley was recently a guest on the Pivot Podcast. He spoke about whether things get tense between the panelists.
Barkley revealed that Shaq can be sensitive when it comes to talking about basketball strategy because he never had to have one. Chuck added that he knows he is under Shaq’s skin whenever Shaq brings up the argument of NBA championships (5:25 onwards).
“Only time it gets uncomfortable… Shaq is very sensitive. He’s very sensitive. We try to explain to him, there is a strategy in basketball. He doesn’t understand because he’s always been the biggest, baddest MFer in the world, so he never had to have a strategy. When he played against this guy, this guy, or this guy, he just (went) ‘I’m bigger, faster, stronger, better’. But for me and Kenny, when I had to play against Gary Payton, then I gotta play against John Stockton, I got to have two different game plans. So when I play against Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Kevin McHale, I had to have a different gameplan. So he gets mad when we’re like ‘hey man, there is a strategy to this stuff’. He just starts ‘you ain’t won nothing’. That’s when I know I got him. ‘Yeah man, we can have a basketball strategy conversation, I know I didn’t win but there is a strategy out here’. I can understand he has never had to worry about a strategy, but the rest of us have had to worry about strategy.”
Charles Barkley also spoke about his stint with the 1992 Dream Team, and how he felt that he was the best player on the team after Michael Jordan. He also addressed the early stages of his career, when Moses Malone helped him lose weight and get in shape in his rookie season.
Regarding his job with TNT, Barkley also revealed when he plans to retire and walk away from the chair on Inside The NBA.
Barkley and Shaq constantly debate each other on the show. And there is almost never any animosity felt between them.
The two are clearly good friends who happen to disagree, and so they express their thoughts and debate over who is right and who is wrong. But it does make for highly entertaining television for NBA fans, and we hope it continues for as long as possible.
